Brown pulls plug on key projects

Gerald D. Adams, EXAMINER URBAN PLANNING WRITER

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, December 17, 1997

1997-12-17 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- In a surprising realignment of his priorities, Mayor Brown has derailed a number of high-profile redevelopment projects in downtown San Francisco, including plans for the Transbay Terminal, the cleanup of Market Street and the transformation of a key South of Market neighborhood.

Brown wants the Redevelopment Agency to focus its energy elsewhere and abandon the major projects long considered as stars in San Francisco's economic future.

The reason: The agency may be fiscally overextending itself.

Junked for the time being are visions for relieving blight along 1-1/4 miles of Market Street, The City's main drag, and for turning 182 acres of the South of Market District - now mostly parking lots - into a residential and commercial extension of downtown.

Work has already been suspended on an environmental impact report for a new Transbay Terminal.

One agency employee, asking not to be identified, said staff members had dramatically reduced work on the Transbay Terminal and its features, including the boulevard-like transformation of Folsom Street and turning Second Street into an attractive path to the new Giants ballpark at China Basin.

The mayor's order will affect the way The City finances a new home for the Pacific Exchange in the South of Market and a new federal building for 3,000 government workers at Seventh and Market streets.

Mayor: Focus on these instead&lt;

The changes came to light Tuesday when Brown, making his first appearance before the Redevelopment Agency, told its commissioners he wanted them to concentrate on developing other projects, all still in the drawing-board stage, including:

*Southeastern San Francisco, for a 49ers mall, new football stadium, and civilian resuscitation of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

*Mission Bay, which would include a 43-acre second campus for UC-San Francisco, some 5 million square feet of biotechnical and related medical industries and 400,000 square feet for retail businesses. The retail area would be close to the new Giants ballpark.

*Revival of a jazz and entertainment district along lower Fillmore Street.

Asked later why he was suspending projects that had been in the planning process for years, Brown said he had received warnings from former agency chief fiscal officer Bob Gamble that the organization was exceeding its financial capacity.

That rainy-day forecast emerged last week when Redevelopment Agency Executive Director James Morales, in a memo to commissioners, issued a five-year financial outlook. It indicated that by fiscal year 2001-02, the once flourishing agency would be $22 million behind in tax money to pay off revenue bonds. Decreasing federal redevelopment funds exacerbate the fiscal crunch.

Why he's dumping particular plans&lt;

Outside the commission's chambers, the mayor explained some of his demands.

Regarding a long-planned move of the Transbay Terminal from First and Mission streets to Howard and Beale, a project he once supported, Brown said: "The Transbay Terminal is not a priority. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (most of whose members oppose the shift) has funding authority. We can't fund a regional terminal as a city."

As to the area surrounding the terminal, Brown said, "It is not a blighted area," thus suggesting it did not qualify for redevelopment.

Reminded that The City had already spent nearly $1 million on the proposed Transbay District, Brown said, "If it's not going forward, why spend one more nickel on it?"

He still supports finding a new site for the overcrowded Pacific Exchange, now in the Financial District north of Market Street. To finance and assemble a new site, Brown said, "We could still use redevelopment tools."

He suggested a new site at Folsom and Main streets, which could be joined to an existing redevelopment project, Rincon Point-South Beach.

No changes seen for Market&lt;

As to a project considered key to revitalizing the Civic Center, Brown declared, "Mid-Market is not a priority." The project would extend along Market Street from Fourth Street to Octavia Street, including Mission Street and parts of the Tenderloin.

However, Brown insisted rehabilitation of the historic Emporium building to make way for a Bloomingdale's store, which was part of the area redevelopment plan, was still a possibility. He would consider connecting the Emporium site to an existing South of Market redevelopment zone in order to subsidize the project.

Another favorite project of Brown's, a new federal building at the old Greyhound terminal site at Seventh and Mission streets, was to have been part of the mid-Market Street redevelopment. Brown voiced the possibility of borrowing on future tax revenue from the Golden Gateway condominiums a mile away to purchase the former bus terminal parcel for an estimated $10 million.

A breath of life remains in all the proposed project areas, Morales insisted. "I have directed staff to look at the feasibility of all survey areas to determine whether we can afford to go forward," he said.&lt;